Leading compounds meet the criteria:
The COVID Moonshot announced last week a significant milestone in its journey towards an open-science COVID antiviral: We have identified compounds meeting our criteria for progression to preclinical evaluation!
The story so far is captured in the updated biorxiv preprint:
Mpro is validated but…
Mpro is validated as a target by the stunning clinical success and FDA approval of Pfizer’s programme; but as SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic, the extent of excluded patient populations due to drug interactions become clearer: there remains a great need for additional antivirals.
Covid Moonshot moving towards clinical trials…
Our predicted human dose regimen for lead compounds is similar to that of recently approved therapies without the anticipated need for co-dosing with ritonavir. Our safety studies so far support progression of our lead compounds. Rigorous profiling is currently underway as part of our preclinical development package. We anticipate launching clinical trials in 2023.
Importantly, we are continuing to pursue backup compounds that are structurally differentiated in order to defray risks. The COVID Moonshot has an enormous wealth of data to draw on with many potent compounds.
It’s been an exciting time for the COVID Moonshot and the MedChemica team have been proud to contribute.